Let's Make an Ideal!

Doing a little brain-filtering today and came across an old discussion on a forum where we were discussing the Supremes' Heller decision of last year which confirmed that the 2nd Amendment does indeed apply to individuals, not just collective groups or The State. Re-reading a few of my posts I came across the following, which I kinda like, so I'll post 'em here.

Because I can.

"Which, that the Framers intended for me to be able to own a nuke or that it's reasonable for such ownership to be effectively prohibited?

Either way, I agree with both parts. The ideal that I will always seek to drive for, the asymptote if you will, is private ownership of nukes. I will be satisfied with coming up short of that ideal as long as that remains the ideal.

The world isn't ideal. Goals can be."

And to the question: "So you think that they meant it to include cannon and such?"

"Like I've said, I think that was the ideal, yes. I think the Framers would have been far more comfortable with the locals having an Abrams and a Mark 19 and an F-22 than with the government having one. Hell - they didn't even want a standing army, let alone one that could run roughshod over the citizenry.

And because of the technology of weaponry in that era there was literally nothing a government could afford or produce that a private citizen or collection of such could not as well. Nothing.

Like I've also said, I understand where reality trumps ideals, but it doesn't necessarily change them."